A Carrot by Any Other Name
Ah, victory gardens…
I grew up hearing my parents talk about them.
During WWI and WWII, victory gardens were all the rage. Almost every back yard had one. It was the only way people were going to eat well during times where money was more than tight. For protein they kept chickens and rabbits if they could. (Sorry, vegans.)
If you’ve never heard of a victory garden, it’s a space in your back yard dedicated to growing fresh vegetables and herbs for your family’s cooking and feeding needs. If you had a garden and wanted a salad, you’d pick the lettuce, pull a carrot and pluck a tomato from vines you nurtured and grew with you own two hands and by the sweat of your brow. Notice I didn’t say “passion for gardening” because passion had nothing to do with it back then.
Today there is a rebirth of interest in back yard gardens community gardens, and even rooftop and indoor urban “farming.” Passion is involved in this case, because it feels pretty darned good to know you have the option of growing food for your family vs. buying outdated produce from the local chain grocery store. At best, even when you go to higher-end retail stores, you are buying 3-day-old produce… unless it’s coming direct from the farmers.
Growing you own veges and such at home means you can give your family healthier food options, which is what people did decades ago first out of necessity and then because some people realized gardening is hard work that’s good for the soul. My gardener sons call it their Zen place.
My father’s Zen place…
No matter where we lived, which state or which country, my father always kept a large vegetable garden in the back yard. That’s a big statement; we moved around a lot. He was an officer in the U.S. Army, which meant we’d move every year or so. That went on till I was 10 and we settled in Tulsa for five years. But he’d been in the Army for going on three decades by then.
When I turned 10 my dad retired from the Army and took a 9-to-5 job as an administrator of a large hospital in Tulsa he kept a large victory garden in our back yard. Every year it took up more and more space. Pretty soon it took up half the back yard. I’d watch my father toil in the dirt every night. To him it wasn’t toil though; it was relaxing. It was a way to shed the stresses of his complicated job and day-to-day routine.
My father had a ritual…
As soon as he arrived home from work he’d hit the back door, head to the liquor cabinet and shoot back two slugs of Kentucky Bourbon. He’d change out of his suit and tie, throwing on comfy jeans and a tee shirt, grab his garden tools and head to the back yard. He’d work till dinner and if it was the right season, we’d have fresh veges for dinner. If the picking season had passed, rest assured we had lots and lots of home-canned goods to eat.
Having a garden that produced plenty of vegetables, herbs, and fruits (like strawberries and melons) enough to feed our 6-person family came natural to my father. He had a green thumb. (It skipped a generation, because I’m great at killing plants, but my three sons are all gardeners.)
My dad told me that as long as he could remember he’d been planting and harvesting his own food. Makes sense. In his day it was entirely necessary. There were no grocery stores where one could browse for hours in a huge produce section that actually causes massive food waste. (You’d be blown away by the amount of food stores toss out. I volunteer at a food pantry and I’m appalled each and every week!)
Maybe that’s why my father always spent a great deal of time at grocery stores near his home. When a new one opened, he’d be there with bells on. He loved buying fresh meats and canned goods that he didn’t have to catch or prepare himself.
One time I asked him what that thrill of walking through the grocery store was all about. He said it still amazed him though we’ve had these stores in neighborhoods across the country for many decades. He loved seeing all the different foods and over-the-edge choices. It was quite different when he was young.
Life then vs. life now…
Like hundreds of thousands of children born in my father’s time, his upbringing was harsh. He had little time to be a child, few toys and had to grow up fast. His father lost the use of his legs to polio, scooting along on a homemade trolley of sorts just to get around the house or town. My grandfather provided for his wife and two children by writing for pulp publications of the time. He couldn’t work the fields, tend the animals or do the gardening required to run the little family farm, which meant his only son had to pitch in big time to feed the family and take on farming duties. It was no joke. It wasn’t fun. But it had to be done.
“If you wanted meat for dinner, you’d have to find, shoot it and skin it,” my father said. He was doing that by the age of 8. Yes, by 8 years old. At that very young age, my dad went out into the fields, stalked rabbits, shotgun in hand. He then had to skin and prepare them for his mother. Looking at my sons I couldn’t imagine them taking on such a manly role at 8 years old. Can you?!
My dad learned how to milk the cows, collect eggs and kill the chickens when the family dinner required it. By age 12 he did more to take care of his core family than most people my age do today! Actually, any age. Unless they live in the Outback or the wilds of Alaska. It’s crazy if you think about it, and that’s why gardening for himself and his family once he had kids became so important to him.
How his upbringing affected my father’s offspring…
As four daughters of Depression Era parents my sisters and I learned early in life that we were expected to learn how to take care of ourselves. There were no gimmes in my family. Today, we are each strong, independent women who can provide for ourselves and our families. As for me, I started working at age 12 babysitting. Not a dream job, but money’s money. By age of 15 I took a real job that I could work after school. I had my parents’ blessing. If I wanted something I’d buy it. They would feed me just fine. After all, they had a storehouse of home-canned goods and plenty of grocery store finds. They bought a lot of my clothes or my mother would sew outfits for me. Anything “extra” was on me.
Together my parents canned vegetables from their gardens and made some of the best jams and jellies I’ve ever tasted. I’d watch the process in awe. My mother tried to teach me, but I wasn’t interested then. I was young and couldn’t appreciate the labor involved and the point of it all. Truth is, I’m only now getting interested in learning how to can fresh produce myself. Maybe because now I have some spare time on my hands.
While I don’t want to stalk furry creatures or butcher my own stock to make steaks and hamburgers, I am totally open to growing my own fruits and vegetables. Last summer I did a raised garden bed in my back yard. It produced some good things. I’ve grown potatoes, tomatoes, carrots, squash, melons and strawberries with limited success. Maybe it’s because I don’t enjoy heading out to the back yard and doing the hard work. All that hoeing and weed-plucking isn’t for me. That’s not MY Zen place.
But I’m in luck…
Recently I stumbled across a very cool company that provides indoor gardening options. I love everything about them, so I’ll be trying a few of their indoor Victory Garden kits. Click on that last word set and you will see why I think this company is so very cool. Not only have they found a solution to the food scarcity experienced by so many in our world, they’ve made growing fresh vegetables easy.
Grow the lettuce and pluck it for your salad. Grow tomatoes and pluck one of them, too. Like fresh herbs when cooking? No problem.
So what’s this company all about? It is Aggressively Organic(TM). (That happens to be the name of the company, too.) Something I read on their site made my eyes pop out. They are a socially conscious company that donates a Victory Garden kit to a food bank when customers purchase one!! They also do a lot of educating young kids about food and gardens.
In my humble opinion, that’s called putting your money where your mouth is. That’s a rare commodity these days.
The company talks a lot about food scarcity and how more food “deserts” are being created in areas where these barren deserts are only helping to force residents who can’t afford to move go on the government dole. Think Detroit. Think any impoverished area you’ve driven through wondering why anyone would want to live there. Think of the “bad” neighborhoods where you live.
So I’ll do my part.
I’ll keep getting Victory Gardens from this company and I’ll cut down on my visits to the store for produce. These kits grow year-round because you control the environment… plus the company includes the grow lights in their kits. The planter pods require very little water and are biodegradable.
See why I love this company?
Maybe you’ll love it and want to try your hand at a Victory Garden. If so, click here now. Browse. Buy. Change the world one little indoor garden at a time!!
IN FULL DISCLOSURE: I am now an affiliate of Aggressively Organic because I believe in what they are doing. That means some of the links you see in this article are my affiliate code. Whenever you make a purchase using my code, I will receive a percentage of that sale. Hey, if I include my rewards code again, maybe you’ll use it with my thanks: https://rewards.aggressivelyorganic.com/490.html